Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	world_n	writing_n	year_n	30	3	4.3740	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43633	Scandalum magnatum, or, The great trial at Chelmnesford assizes held March 6, for the county of Essex, betwixt Henry, Bishop of London, plaintiff, and Edm. Hickeringill rector of the rectory of All-Saints in Colchester, defendant, faithfully related : together with the nature of the writ call'd supplicavit ... granted against Mr. Hickeringill ... as also the articles sworn against him, by six practors of doctors-common ... Published to prevent false reports.	Hickeringill, Edmund, 1631-1708.	1682 (1682)	Wing H1825; ESTC R32967	125,748	116

Scandalum Magnatum Or the GREAT TRIAL AT Chelmnesford Assizes Held March 6 for the County of ESSEX BETWIXT HENRY Bishop of LONDON Plantiff AND EDM. HICKERINGILL Rector of the Rectory of All-Saints in COLCHESTER Defendant FAITHFULLY RELATED Together with the Nature of the Writ call'd SUPPLICAVIT seldom granted against any in these Days more seldom granted against any but common-Rogues and common-Barreters and common-Villains yet granted against Mr. Hickeringill Who was thereupon bound to the Good-Behaviour at the Court of King's-Bench Westminster Octab. Pur. xxxiv R. R. AS ALSO The Articles sworn against him by six Proctors of Doctors-Commons the Reverend Proctors Names are like-wise according to the Record in the Crown-Office particulariz'd With large Observations and Reflections upon the whole Published to prevent false Reports LONDON Printed for E. Smith at the Elephant and Castle in Cornhil 1682. THE INTRODUCTION WAS there ever more need than now to prevent false Reports when every Coffee-House Table instead of a better Carpet is cover'd and pester'd with false News False Rumours and News the Epidemical Plague that our Ancestors were so careful to prevent that as the Laws Oracle Cook cap. 39. Institut 3. tells us that the Law before the Conquest was That the Author and Spreader of false Rumours amongst the People had his Tongue cut out if he redeemed it not by the estimation of his Head Int. Leg. Alveredi cap. 28. If this Law had been reviv'd Thompson Heraclitus and the Observator had much better be Tongue-ty'd For tho Wise-Men and Good-Men in a just scruple of Conscience scorn to read such nauseous Ribaldry in Reverence to that of the Wise-man Prov. 17. 4. A wicked Doer giveth heed to false Lips and a Lyer giveth Ear to a naughty Tongue knowing that the Resettor is as bad as the Thief and that the Ear that loves to hear is as bad as the Tongue that loves to speak false News and equally Guilty and he that loveth as well as he that maketh a Lye is rank'd amongst Dogs and Sorcerers and Whoremongers and Murtherers and Idolaters Rev. 22. 15. Yet the depraved Nature of Man is novitatis avida greedy of hearing Tales from the very Cradle and many Englishmen now like the Athenians Acts 17. 21. spend their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new-thing The Lydians punish'd these false News-Mongers with Death as if a Man's Reputation was as dear to him as his Life and the Assassinate of a Man's good Name was accounted a Murderer The Grecians and the French have but one Name or Word to signify the Devil and his Son the Slanderer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diable or Devil who was a Murtherer from the beginning that is a Lyer and the Father of Lyes And to delight in hearing or reading false and scandalous News is an Accessory which in Murder and all Assassinations is equally punish'd and equally guilty with the Principal Prudent Men tho' and Men of Courage like a Lyon or a right English Mastiff stalk and walk on when little Currs bark at them answering their yelping only with Contempt Convicia si irascaris tua divulgas spreta exolescunt saith Tacitus If you seek to revenge Slanders you proclaim them as your own But if you despise them they vanish of themselves There are but few Bishops like Arch-Bishop Cranmer who was so much revil'd that he might have made work enough for the Lawyers if he would have ply'd their Courts with Actions upon the Statute of Scandal Magnat ●ut he chose rather to win Men with his Goodness not rendring Evil for Evil ●●t so usually Good for Evil that it became a Proverb in those Days Do my Lord of Canterbury a Displeasure and you have him your Friend ever after that 's more Christian-like and Bishop-like than if Men had cause to say Do my Lord of _____ a Displeasure and you have him your Enemy ever after Sure the World is near its end and drawing its last Breath Charity is so cold now a Days old and cold God knows as for Example and woful Experience Ecce Signum The Pressures that this Defendant has undergone since he writ the Naked Truth above a Year ago are almost insupportable and enough to make his Back crack at least enough to fright Men from writing or speaking any more Naked-Truths It was always so the great Prophet of old made the same complaint to small purpose God wot amongst some Men Isa 59. 14 15. Judgment is turned away backward and Justice standeth afar off for Truth is fallen in the Street and Equity cannot enter Yea Truth faileth and he that departeth from Iniquity maketh himself a Prey and the Lord saw it and it displeased him that there was no Judgment How has this Defendant been pester'd within this Twelve Months Four and twenty great Heads of Barretry preferr'd against him in the Crown-Office about fifty Witnesses subpoena'd to prove them yet scarce ten of them sworn and some of them that were subpoena'd profest before they were subpoena'd that they knew nothing of the Matter and yet subpoena'd What run Men down with a Noise Is that such Policy or is it Piety And when the Defendant's Innocence appear'd and a Verdict to that purpose by the Worthy Jury yet afterwards How was he visited and vex'd in the Ecclesiastical-Court of Arches Henry Bishop of London Promoter there against him and for some of the same Barretry too of which he had been honourably acquitted And when the danger appear'd of prosecuting him in that Ecclesiastical-Court for Barretry against the Statutes of Praemunire and Provisors though Witnesses were sworn to them yet it was upon second Thoughts adjudg'd unsafe to insist upon them and five of the Articles were laid aside wherewith they had long made a loud noise and only five clandestine Marriages insisted upon or Marriages without Banes first published in time of Divine-Service and how can that be where there is no Divine-Service but the old Rule Necessitas vincit Legem would not pass Currant against a Law of Man though it prov'd a good Dispensation to Holy David against a Law of God But in all haste suspended and silenc'd he must be I do not know when whether the Ecclesiastical Court have Wit in their Anger and will not do all the harm they can or whether they think there is more in Matrimony than a matter of Money or whether they think it hard to silence a Minister from Preaching the Gospel though the Register's had not the nine or ten Shillings as formerly from the Defendant for a Blanck-Licence whilst scarce a Man in an Age is silenc'd for Drunkenness Ignorance Laziness Fornication or Debauchery or whether they resolve to be merciful in Conclusion or if that be not so probable whether they suspend the execution of the Suspension that the longer the blow is a heaving it may fall the heavier I cannot tell But they have found the Defendant work enough this twelve-Month last

The bloody and numerous Sect of the Donatists in Africa what Mischief brought that Heresy to the Christian-World and all the quarrel arose because Donatus that Diotrephes that lov'd to have the preheminence 3 Ep. Joh. 9. or was ambitious of being a Prelate as the Original properly signifies ruffled with Cecilianus for the Bishoprick of Carthage Solomon says from Pride comes Contention for a Man ambitious to sit perking upon the Pinacle of the Temple the fittest place the crafty Devil thought to insinuate his Temptations upon our blessed Saviour he will endeavour to break that Man's Neck that says come down into the Seat of the Church amongst your Brethren where our Saviour has plac'd you nay and the honest Canons too What inhumane Cruelty did the Prelates in the Council of Constance exercise to poor John Wickliff our Country-man Rector of Lutterworth in Leicestershire and his naked-Naked-Truth in 45 Articles that cut them to the very Hearts because it cut their Combs for them and not content with killing him after he was buried one and forty years they caused his Bones to be digged up barbarous and cruel Ecclesiasticks and to be burn'd inhumane Divines Nay That great Advocate for Prelacy Sir George Jefferies in this Assizes took notice that of all the Witnesses that swear at the Assizes the Clergy-men the Clergy tell the strangest Tales and the most oddely and most impertinently of all other Witnesses perhaps 't is because they are forced to preach at the Assizes without Book But of all the Clergy-VVitnesses never did any thing look so beshrimpen and appall'd as that same little Harris the Bishop's special Witness truly the Man has reason to go snips and have half of the 2000 l. given in Damages to the Bishop For neither the Bishop nor any Man alive had to this day ever heard of those scandalous Words in the Declaration if he had not broach'd them and been the Author of them for after the Defendant was gone little imagining as neither any in the Company that any Offence was taken or any Exceptions made no not so much as by Harris the Man-catcher The little Blade goes to another Room writes what he lists or what he remembers and such a Man had need of a good Memory but 't is treacherous and out he brings his own Scandalum Magnatum hoping to get some one in the Company to be if possible as wicked as his little Clergyship But by God's good Providence missing his Aim away he trudges lest he should be called to an account for his own devised Scandals and be forced to find the Author away trudges he as fast as his wicked Legs could tremblingly carry him to that old Piece of Malice Sir J. S. that has always an open Heart as well as open Ears at a Piece of Mischief against the Defendant Harris could scarcely on this side Hell have met with a fitter Tutor whose Friendship is Artifice and superficial but his Malice Revenge and Wickedness is natural innate deep as his own own Self Nor could any Present be more welcome to the Bishop it seems by the consequence than Articles against the Man that finds such fault with his illegal Confirmations Visitations Vexations c. Therefore call a Court come to the Cabal all the Breath-sellers whose Trade also is endangered by the wicked Defendant Search old Statutes for the promoting whereof Empson and Dudley were hang'd vex and ruin by the Aid of a good Jury the Defendant and his Family and only for a supposed Transgression proved by a slender and self-contradicting Evidence that swore three times and every time varied and yet I 'le warrant he had said them over and over since last Easter oftner than he had said his Prayers but he was not suffered to swear by Book tho he prayes and preaches all by Book For if at the first time he swore the Words true the other was false and he a false Varlet and not to be believed by any Jury that were not resolved and some would not have been suffered to attempt the third time especially 1. He was but a single Evidence and therefore neither the Bishop ought to have believed him at first nor the Jury now swearing against a Presbyter because the Holy Scripture as the Defendant urged ought to have some respect and observance from a Bishop especially who is commanded against an Elder not so much as to receive an Accusation but under two or three Witnesses 2. This little Witness was not to be believed because point-blank contraried by six substantial Witnesses who were not negative Witnesses only but affirmative and positive for they did not only swear they did not hear any such Words but all jointly and positively affirmed that they heard the whole Discourse heard all the Words and well remembred them because Harris after the Defendant's departure not before going into another Room and writing other Words than the Defendant spake and bringing them to the rest of the Company to subscribe they writ down the true Words whilst fresh in their Memories and all turn'd Abhorrers of so vile a Man and so wicked a Design And all this was upon Oath made appear to the Judg and Jury by the Oaths of all the six Witnesses but no notice was taken of it by the Judg when he summ'd up the Evidence otherwise than that he honestly said the Evidence on both sides was quite contrary one to another and could not be both true And who could imagine that an unbiass'd Jury should judg six honest Lay-men that had no design but Truth should swear false in compliance with a puny Clergy-man not worthy a Name or Company amongst honest Men such Man-catchers should be avoided by all Men as Enemies to all Commerce and Conversation and such a Fellow too as swears for himself indeed for he is the Author of the Scandalum Magnatum if he could not father his Lies upon the Defendant as he has done thank a good Jury by special Orders of the Bench to the High-Sheriff himself to pick them and empannel them throughout the County And the Jury-Men for Estates and Quality were well enough but not one of them any other than such as know who and who is together and all or most of them in Commission and Dependance for their Places and Offices at the Arbitrement of 3. How improbable is it that the Defendant should put a Dagger into his Enemy's Hand the Hand of a Creature that came to take his Benefice from him and to eat the Bread out of his Mouth 4. How probable is it that one single Evidence may and must forswear himself in this Case when six Men contradict him at the same Time and Minute soon after the Words were spoken 5. How improbable it is that a Man should truly repeat another Man's Discourse that cannot repeat his own Discourse and Words off-Book in Sermon or Prayers or now upon Oath 6. How improbable it is that one Man should swear Truth

converted art ' tic well Thour't in the way to Heaven they to Hell And what tho' many of the Saints do fear Thou do'st dissemble because they do hear How thou did'st persecute the Saints and hale Their Persons innocent unto the Jayl What tho' at present they be shy of thee Yet thou proceeding in thy Zeal to be A Convert true it will rejoice their Hearts That God hath raised thee to take their parts And what tho' Priests do wait by Writ of Cape Yet by some Basket thou shalt have escape Their Ruffins sworn to take thy Life away By Providence shall miss their hoped Prey Tho' some may question thinking that thou art No true Disciple from thy very Heart Yet when it shall be known what thou hast writ And preached too thou wilt be quite acquit When by thy Naked-Truth the Church hath ease It will the Brethren in all places please But let me tell thee Mr. Hickeringill Tho' many Grave Divines approve thy Pill Prelats and proud Priests say thou hast no skill The Gout the Strangury and such Disease May by a Velvet Couch receive some ease And Golden Chariots rocking them doth please A Body full of Humours all can tell Disgusts that Physick that will them expell Because it makes them keek and vomit up Their sweetest Morsels like a bitter Cup. Sick Physick they don't like tho' that must cure This they resolved are not to endure Thou purgest Head the Reins and Liver too Fluxeth the Body and makes such ado That all their Rottenness will be discovered They like not this thy way to be recovered But will keep rather their Distemper still Than Purge and Vomit thus to make them ill Diseases foul Physicians will conceal And gross Distempers they will not reveal The Credit is the Patient's Gain's their own This thou regardest not but makes all known Tho' they tormented are and full of pain Yet they have Riches Profits Honour Gain And they are courted too have great Retinues To wait on them and they have great Revenues Now this they love and will not change their state For all thy Pamphlet-printing and thy prate They say a Mungrel-Mountebank thou art That mounts the Stage but hath no real Art Thou runs from Town to Town to show thy Feats And vend thy mouldy Drugs which are but Cheats Thou railst against the Cross but dost purloin Picking Men's Pockets both of Cross and Coin Thou hast no Licence to be thy Defender Therefore against the Law thou art offender If this be true there 's ground enough I trow By Scandalum Magnatum to o're-throw And bring thee down upon thy bended Knees To ask Forgiveness and to pay thy Fees Therefore the Scribes do lay for thee their Snares And do consult to take thee unawares The Officers of Doctors Commons meet Together often and their Heads do beat What course to take The Learned Chancellors Crafty Civillians foul-mouth'd Registers Arch-Deacons Surrogates are in a Huff The Proctors and Appariters do snuff Our Wealth is gone if we let this alone We must with th' Irish cry Ohone Ohone They all combine and never will give out Until they have giv'n Hickeringill the rout Their Cobweb-Canons and their Lime-twig-Laws Thou valuest no more than rotten Straws Thou fearest not their hollow Pot-gun noise Being good for nothing but to fright the Boys They therefore now appeal and crave the aid Of Statute-Laws to help them in their Trade Look to thy self they are resolv'd now in To lose the Saddle or the Horse to win They strive to make Pilat and Herod Friends And then the Consistory have their Ends. Now Velvet Saddl's offer'd with Gold Fringe Richly adorn'd with splendid Trappeling And when the Saddle's on their Back they 'l get A Snaffel in their Mouths with Iron Bit Except God give them Grace and better Wit For when they 'r mounted they will spur them on Unto their own and thy destruction It is by this means they support their hope To get thy Neck into a Hempen Rope The Cross thou likest not and will not have A Gibbet's good enough for such a Slave If they can get the Learned Lawyers in To take their part as they now do begin This was the way they dealt with Christ him kil'd And poor St. Paul his Back with stripes was fill'd But it is hoped that will be forbidden For honest Lawyers will not be Priest-ridden For they will show no Mercy switch and ride Till they have got unto the Romish side Lawyers themselves at last will yoaked be Becoming Traitors to their Liberty For if the Statute do their Canons draw They 'll keep the King's Liege-Subjects in such aw By raising up a Spanish Inquisition Bringing all down to ruin and perdition They 'll set the Mitre up above the Crown And bring all Law and all Religion down O the Confusion that will follow then But I forbear and will hold in my Pen And so conclude with England's Letany Defend us Lord from French and Popery And God send thee a safe Delivery SOL. SHAW We are commanded to love the Truth and Peace well put together for Truth seldom meets Peace without tho it always makes Peace within Truth seldom gets in this World external Peace but never misses internal and eternal Peace The Word of Truth Truth it self our blessed Saviour and his Apostles never failed of inward Peace of Conscience and Joy in the Holy-Ghost never fail'd neither of external Ruffles and War from without and therefore he said He came not to send Peace on Earth but a Sword It always was so from the beginning is now and ever shall be that War should be betwixt the Seed of the Woman and the Seed of the Serpent But there can be no Peace saith my God to the Wicked neither Peace external internal nor eternal For Truth is the Essence of Peace the Life and Soul of Peace it ceases to be Peace when Truth is absent and is meer War Confusion and Conspiracy How I have studied the Way of Truth let good Men judg and how I have studied the Way of Peace this following Letter to Henry Bishop of London will evince And not further to displease Sir George Jefferies for I hate this vain Jangling about Words and Titles and Genealogies as it happens the Welsh Knight will now be pleased for the last Letter sent from this Defendant to the Bishop was as smooth docile courtly and Alamode as the best Courtier of them all can write And that the Defendant absit invidia verbis has been as great a Traveller as St. Taphee or as that great Welsh-man and Kill-Cow Hero Capt. Jones himself that said he had a Priviledg or Patent whereby he could lie by Authority wonderful Preferment the Welsh-man was proud on 't tho The Letter verbatim thus Viz. To the Reverend Father in God Henry Lord Bishop of London at London House in Aldersgate-Street May it please your Lordship THis is the second humble Address that

Jura Lyndwood in Con. Oth. quid ad ven v. corrigend Then 2 dly For the Bowings Noddings to the East to the Altar to the Wax-Candles Is it not bold and daring c. to set up or countenance Ceremonies against the King's Laws and Acts of Uniformity that were never of God's making nor of the King and Parliament's making Is not this bold daring and abominably impudent Then 3dly To recommend in a printed Paper Canons for the Clergy to observe the 65 66 and 3 of the Canons of Forty when there never was any such in the World And as for these Lambeth Canons that to make all the Republicks in the World our Enemies falsely assert that Monarchy is Jure divino by the prime Law of Nature and at large confuted in Naked Truth 2d Part. It was Impudence in the Clergy to make that first-of-the Lambeth-Canons at first and greater Ignorance that a whole Convocation should be no wiser and yet so bold daring and impudent as to impose upon the Clergy and Lay-People such Vntruths and Falshoods as are in that first Article of the Constitutions of Forty but strangely bold daring and impudent for any Man at this day to justify vindicate recommend or defend them The Naked Truth 2d Part has confuted the Vanity and Ignorance of the Convocation in that first Article of their Lambeth-Canons or Constitutions of Forty against all Contradiction and beyond the Skill of all the Bishops and Clergy of England to answer at least hitherto they have slept quietly upon 't and shall a single Bishop and one of the youngest Sort too revive them and yet cannot justify the very first of them which is not the worst of them neither as is fully and particularly and at large proved by the Defendant in his former Works and condemn'd by the great Wisdom of the Nation in an Ordinance This 't is for Men to stand on the utmost Pinacle of the Temple and oversee and command all others when a lower Seat of the Church would be as well or more easily supplied by them What Mischief to the Church in all Ages has it brought To make Boy-Cardinals and Boy-Bishops and Novices great before they be good and to command wiser Men than themselves Like Fresh-water and Courtier-Captains of Ships and yet know not Larboard from Starboard or how to right the Helm nay perhaps can neither box nor so much as say their Compass and yet these must be Pilots and Governors 't is the Ruin of the Fleet. Or to set up or prop a Church of Christ with the unsuitable and rotten Props of Cruelty and Force as if Christianity destroyed what it came to amend Humanity or that to be a Christian Governor is to be an inhumane Devil good for nothing but to run up and down seeking whom he may devour and worse than Turks Jews Heathens and Infidels It is this Ecclesiastical Policy that has ruin'd the most resplendent Empire of the Christian World Spain not so terrible in her inexhaustible Treasures and Indie-Mines as formerly in her Warlike Hands yet How contemptible now how depopulated how despicable to all their Neighbours that were so formidable so latley to England and the Christian World How did King James court them and King Charles the First humble himself in hopes of an Alliance with Spain What cringing Letters upon this Hope were writ to his Holiness what Complements for I hope they were not in earnest to Pope Gregory the 15th that Wretch Sanctissime Pater Beatitudinis vestrae Literas c. Nunquam tanto quo ferimur studio nunquam tam arcto tam indissolubili vinculo ulli mortalium conjungi cuperemus cujus odio Religionem prosequeremur c. Vt sicut omnes unam individuam Trinitatem unum Christum crucifixum confitemur in unam Fidem coalescamus Quod ut assequamur labores omnes atque vigilias Regnorum etiam atque Vitae pericula parvi pendimus c. Bless us what Promises are here of Propensity to Rome even to the Hazard of Life Kingdoms and All in devotion to his Blessedness so he is friled who will not stir a Step from his Infallibility one would think that to have met him half way had been Devotion enough in all Conscience Reason Scripture Law or Equity and for such mighty and wise Kings and Princes too you 'll say as were King James and King Charles the First in so I hope never to be again imitated Condescension and Submission It makes my Heart ake to think on 't or read the Letters published at length by the indefatigable Mr. Rushworth as before quoted and all the Pope's Demands signed by the King and Prince p. 73. of his Historical Collect. Part 1. And all this for what For the Spanish Match And now Spain is glad to woo instead of being wooed glad to court and address instead of receiving Addresses glad with Gifts Pensions even to the emptying of their Inexhaustible Treasure beggar themselves and keep themselves poor and pennyless to keep Cart on Wheels nay and all will scarce do neither And why and why They are depopulated by the Inquisition the Severity and Persecution according to Law tho And their Trade is decayed by reason of their foppish and numerous Holy-Days or Play-days Families are needy and starved because not suffered to work upon the Six Days whereon God says thou shalt labour That were it not that the Indian Mines did supply them with merconary Souldiers poor Refuge to trust unto God knows they had given up the Ghost long ago And now do not they gape for Help or some poor Comfort like Men drawing on or at the last Gasp Nay I my self know scarce any Man better that if there were War betwixt England and Spain which few Men desire in this Conjuncture Jamaica and the Wind-ward Islands alone are ten Men to one of all the natural Spaniards in the Indies and without the help of England either in Men or Ships Money or Ammunition could I know what But I 'le reserve it to another Season I know on what Score the brave Raleigh was sacrificed to Gundamore's Revenge the Spanish Embassador Yet some Politicians the Scholars and Disciples of Nat. Thomson L'Estrange and Heraclitus think that the best Way to keep a Kingdom quiet is to depopulate jail them beggar them sham-plot them send them to the Devil and the Jail spoil all Trade discourage all Adventures to Sea as if Men were Dogs and good for nothing but to be hang'd And yet the wise Man found it true That Oppression makes a wise Man mad and with all his Wisdom and his Politicks he found too late that he was mated and bearded by his own Servant and he none of the best neither Jeroboam who taking advantage of the People's Discontent and Murmurings wanting only a Head to relieve themselves soon won eleven of the twelve Tribes from the Fool that would listen to no Advice no Address but that

Caitiffs that have lost all Bowels of Humanity and Compassion with a Vengeance That Atheists may know that there is a God that judgeth in the Earth and pays men in their own Coin This Adonibezek too late acknowledg'd when his Thumbs and great Toes were cut off the very same Cruelty which he had inflicted upon others And thus the Merciless that without remorse delight in the Ruin of a Man and his House palliating Revenge with an Hypocritical Deodand to ruin a Man and his Heritage when God has rewarded them in their own kind each of them over their own Ruines shall say with Adonibezek Judg. 1. 7. As I have done so God hath requited me For Truth hath said it They shall find Judgment without Mercy who have shewed no Mercy Tho this must be said in the behalf of that Jury that tho it was reported in London before the Trial what the Issue has prov'd yet it is also said that the Jury in so great a Fine as 2000 l. intended nothing therein of Prejudice to the Defendant but to bring him to a Submission in vindication of the Bishop's Credit which how true it is is Time will discover But in truth the Bishop's Reputation had been sufficiently and better vindicated if they had given credit to six substantial Witnesses who acquitted the Defendant that the Words in the Declaration were not spoken as they are laid rather than to that little Body who was prov'd upon Oath to be so infamous a Person by that Noble Earl and by his own Vouchers prov'd to have so little regard to his Duty which he ows to God to his own Soul and to his Parishioners and to his Oath of Residence in his said Perpetual-Vicarage as to leave them utterly and forsake them taking another Cure and Flock and leaving his own to the Care of one that was lately a silly Log-river and knows not well how to discharge his own Cure nor to read his Accidence And all this when not only all the said Witnesses for the Defendant did swear negatively that they did not hear such Words but positively swore that they heard the whole Discourse and writ down the Words immediatly upon Harris his false Recital of them and his bringing them in Writing to the Witnesses for them to subscribe which with abhorrence and astonishment they refused the Defendant being gone out of the Room before and knowing nothing thereof and also gone out of Town and the Witnesses of their own Accord writing down the true Words which they swore to and several more of the Company might have been brought to testify the same for tho there wanted no Endeavour by all means possible to gain but one Witness to back Harris his Evidence yet found they none At last came one single false Witness who will as 't is said be Indicted thereupon for Perjury for his Pains and Witnesses substantial Witnesses to prove it upon him let him claw it off as well as he can or his Friends to help him No Man is too great for the Law such Fellows must be made Examples of that swear thorow-stitch and become false Witnesses to get Naboth's Vineyard from him when it can be done no other way must it be done by a single Son of Belial Naboth had yet the Honour to fall by two Sons of Belial Hard Case Must the Defendant be ruin'd by one alone and such an one and one so infamous Nay there was not only two against Naboth but also there was not six positive Witnesses for him as there was for this Defendant to swear positively that they were in Company all the Time and heard all the Words which were not so but so and so And lastly were this little-Blade of Fortune rectus in Curiâ nor had any Design upon the Defendant's Vineyard and never so honest yet it is against positive Scripture and God's holy Word for the Jury to bring in a Verdict thereupon against the Defendant as the Defendant well told them because against an Elder an Accusation ought not to be received but at the Mouth of two or three Witnesses And neither Common-Law Statute-Law Civil-Law Canon-Law no nor the Bishop of Rome himself can give the Jury a Dispensation against God's holy Word and that they will find one Day for so wilful a Sin and so fairly forewarn'd thereof by the Defendant God forgive them It is ill for Men that are but Worms-meat to sin wilfully and in defiance of the Holy Will and Word of their Creator In the Interim tho the Sabeans and Caldeans ruin'd Job yet they were but Instruments the Defendant sees the Finger of God therein and says with Job The Lord hath taken away blessed be the Name of the Lord. The World shall find in this World God's righteous Justice that 's my Faith and in this Case particularly wherein God's Truth is concerned against the Cruelties Oppressions and apparent bold and impudent Extortions and illegal Fees of the Ecclesiastical Fellows so unanswerably revealed by the Defendant in relief of the Kings Subjects who are in behalf of their Souls plagu'd with their Anathema's and Excommunications in behalf of their Bodies hurried afterward to Jails in behalf of their Purses Liberties and Estates so mangled by this Nest at Doctors-Commons and all the Kingdom over by Birds of the same Feather that no wonder they flock together to ruine the Man that will be the Ruine of their wicked Trade and all the Powers on Earth will not long uphold them to live thus as they do in publick and daily defiance of the King's Laws in Oppressions illegal Fees and Extortions in open contempt of the many Statutes made against them and now in force if any be in force surely they are as much in force as that of 2 Rich. 2. about Scandal Magnat made when the Prelates Popish Prelates were rampant alas alas too rampant both Laymen and Clergy-men little Clergy-men were more afraid of them than of Serpents Toads Tygers or Wolves and well they might for those venemous Creatures and ravenous Brutes were less dangerous less mischievous and less fierce and cruel than those Prelates when they got a Man at advantage Do you mark me I say those Prelates do not catch mind the Colloquium before-going of Popish Prelates we are speaking of Popish Prelates that were more mischievous more inexorable and hard-hearted than Snakes Tygers Bears Dogs or Wolves or any other persecuting Worry-Sheep or cruel Blood-hounds And yet those mind what I say Popish Prelates with all their Suspensions Curses Anathema's and Excommunications and such kind of Thunder were esteemed by wise Men even in these Days saving your Presence Sir-reverence a meer Crack-fart Pope Paul the Third excommunicated our King Henry the Eighth with such a Pope's Bull that the Historian says the like was never known before nor since No wonder he bellow'd and roar'd so for take a greedy Ecclesiastick by the Pocket and hinder his Cheat and Extortions as Hen. 8. did and you